Hampton Roads federal workers, retirees fret as shutdown looms

As Congress wrangles over the terms of a spending bill needed to keep the federal government open past Sept. 30, Hampton Roads employees and retirees are asking themselves how their jobs, paychecks and retirement benefits will be affected by a government shutdown.

Complicating matters is that not all federal jobs will be treated equally and not all government functions will halt on Oct. 1. Social Security checks will be mailed, the military will remain at guard and veterans hospitals will stay open.

But departments deemed not necessary to the public's health and safety will be shuttered, and employees who must still report to work may not be paid until funding is appropriated.

Congress is expected to work through the weekend to hammer out a deal that appeases both political parties and addresses funding for the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. The House passed a short-term spending bill that stripped funding from the Affordable Care Act. The Senate passed a bill that included Obamacare funding.

There has been no talk of a compromise.

With more than 157,000 government employees in the region, Hampton Roads would be hit hard by a shutdown. More than 71,000 people are employed by the military in the metropolitan statistical area, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Despite regular meetings with members of Congress, members of the Virginia chapter of the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association remain in the dark about whether their benefits will be affected by a federal shutdown.

"We try to keep our members as up to date as possible and involved as possible," said Patricia "Pat" Taylor. "We make a lot of phone calls and send a lot of emails to our (congressional) representatives reminding them we need their support. I don't know that anyone truly knows what's going on right now."

Taylor is an association vice president. Her region includes the Peninsula, Williamsburg, Middle Peninsula and Northern Neck local chapters.

Statewide, the group includes 59 active chapters and represents close to 20,000 active and retired federal employees. Local chapters represent about 800 employees, she said.

Taylor said the group usually meets with Congressional representatives to discuss the cost of living, medical bills and taxes.

"We have widows in the local chapters that retired many, many years ago, and they're struggling, absolutely struggling," Taylor said. "We let (officials) know that we are voters and that we're at an age where we vote. We truly stay on them."

A shutdown would also affect workers at some of the Peninsula's most popular historic sites.

Jamestown Island is federal property, although many employees work for Preservation Virginia. The building which they work in sits on federal land, meaning a shutdown would keep that building inaccessible, said Barbara Brown, a spokeswoman for Colonial Williamsburg.

Federal park rangers will also be impacted by the shutdown.

Unease over their employment is weighing on some federal contract employees.

A store clerk in the gift shop at the Yorktown Visitor Center said for the last four or five years things have been uncertain for federal and contract employees come September when the federal government's fiscal year ends. The clerk asked not to be named because of her fear of angering management.

The National Park Service gift shop is run by Eastern National, a nonprofit agency that operates similar shops at other park sites.

The clerk said as an employee with Eastern National she won't receive pay retroactively. Every year, she said, she saves up her vacation days for the fall and waits to see if Congress will pass a budget.

Many federal employees are also still stinging from sequestration furloughs.

Gabrielle Martin, president of the American Federation of Government Employees' National Council of EEOC Locals, No. 216, issued a statement saying, "Our members of Congress need to remember that federal employees are not a political football. We are people. We have families. We are your neighbors. We are your constituents. We serve your constituents."